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Even children were sacrificed in Mayan times. Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

DEEP in the Belize jungle of Central America lies a cave with creepy human remains more than 1000 years old thought to be victims of ritual sacrifices.

Discovered in 1989, Actun Tunichil Muknal, or ATM as it’s locally known, is not easy to reach. Brave travellers must take an hour’s ride from San Ignacio in Belize, then walk another hour through shallow rivers and jungle to reach the mouth of the cave.

From here visitors have to swim into the cave and wade up the river for another kilometre past huge boulders and cavernous rooms.

Entrance to the cave of human sacrifices. Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

At the very end of the cave system are the skeletons of at least 14 humans, victims of ritual sacrifices made by the Mayan people to their gods, lying on a sacrificial site called “The Cathedral”.

The most famous of these skeletons is that of an 18-year-old girl known as “The Crystal Maiden.” Lying in a room separate to the other bodies, it is believed she was killed in a violent manner, possibly with a club, with two of her vertebrae crushed. Her bones stick up from the ground in a unique position and have been completely calcified giving them a sparkling calcite coating, inspiring the crystal maiden name.

The skeletons have been preserved through calcification. Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

The other skeletons range in age from a one-year-old to an approximately 45-year-old, almost all were killed by blunt trauma to the head, some had their entire skulls crushed.

Four of those sacrificed were infants between the ages of one and three whose remains were stuffed into crevices and adjoining caves.

Pottery and sacrificial tools found in the caves have made it easier for archaeologist to place a date on the scarifications. In the past two decades they have found more than 1400 fragments dating back to 250 and 909 A.D. — the period when the “Classic Mayan” kingdoms ruled a swath of Mesoamerica.

The items have been cemented to the cave floor by calcite and have been preserved as they were left. Ancient bowls feature “kill holes”, possibly to drain the blood or allow a spirit to escape and the “Stelae Chamber” has two stone markers thought to be where the leaders performed rituals to the gods. Sharp rock blades found nearby indicate they cut themselves to offer their own blood and a “Monkey Pot”, named for its primate decoration near the rim, is one of only four ever discovered in Central America

Pottery left for thousands of years. Picture: Beth and Anth.Source: Flickr

The ancient Maya are one of the world’s most mysterious civilisations and believed that the underworld of caves was home to gods that controlled rainfall and harvest bounties. Young children and women were considered to be pure and most desirable to the gods and are thought to have been brought down and sacrificed for luck. At least five of the victims are thought to have been from the noble class — their skulls that had been bound and flattened, a popular practice among the civilisation’s elite.

The cave was traditionally believed to be the entrance to hell filled with rivers of blood and scorpions, today visitors can access the cave with authorised tour guides to explore its creepy past.

Visitors must trek through kilometres of rivers and jungle. Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

The bones sparkle from calcification. Picture: Beth and Anth.Source: Flickr

Ancient pottery lies among the bones. Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

The only way in is to swim. Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

Inside the cave of death. Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

One of four in Central America, the “Monkey Pot.” Picture: V31S70.Source: Flickr

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